SALLY ADNAMS JONES

I grew up in South Africa, with its loud birdsong, vibrant flora, and colourful fauna.

I grew up in Africa where, early in life, I fell in love with colours, spots and stripes. Africa is a sweet-spot of emergence in nature, and human creativity. My home city of Durban is a colourful place, home to many Zulu people who love to drum, sing and bead, and the largest Indian community outside of India, who have rich cultural traditions, and love to make spicy food and wear brightly coloured fabrics. As a child, I was constantly stimulated by colour and rhythm. My father, an architect, taught me to draw, and my mother, a ballet dancer, taught me to dance. I realized from an early age that I was deeply attracted to all forms of self-expression and I began to notice that the more I engaged in various creative arts, the more I understood their deeper, unifying, spiritual significance, that creativity is simply performing ‘an alignment with the principles of an evolving universe’. Physics verified this for me – it taught me that ‘something’ is always emerging from ‘nothing’ at both the micro and macro levels of existence. The resulting forms that arise, such as giraffe, zebra, books, plays, dance or art are simply the results of deep rivers of creativity running through the universe, through the landscape, the mind and the body.

I have always been a student of the universe. I enjoy creative and spiritual influences from many parts of the globe, including a vibrant image bank from Africa, and a love of words from my British heritage. I learned early how to meditate and practice yoga from my Hindu neighbours. I am also interested in indigenous and shamanic practices, as I was surrounded by many diverse cultures in Africa. I was privileged to study human transformation with several of the great Indian gurus who moved to America, where I did my post graduate work in transformative Yoga Education. Later, after I moved to Canada, I became the director of a residential, Yoga Education Centre, and a teacher of Transformative Art Education at a University.

My interest in how humans transform and empower themselves has led me to study many things, including the arts, science, education, psychology, neurology, evolutionary spirituality, creativity, and feminism, culminating, in my Phd, which focused on how creativity transforms us. Now I bring all I have learned to you, as a counsellor and author. When I am not counselling, or further researching creativity and transformation, I can be found in my studio on Vancouver Island, or walking next to the pristine ocean that is still filled with whales, otters, and surging kelp beds. This island, with its rainforested, mountainous wilderness, bear and cougar, feeds my soul. My family and the resourceful, eco-friendly people who live here, are my wellspring. Living in right relationship with body-mind, community and the planet are the cornerstones of my health and happiness.

I invite you to explore my website; read my blog and my books; visit my Facebook page TransformArta; commission some art for your office, business or home; or engage with me in a counselling session or workshop. It is my joy to share this knowledge with others who are interested in becoming more aware of their inherent creativity, and who wish to engage with their own psychological and spiritual evolution at the deepest levels.

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Curriculum Vitae

I will never stop being a student, even as I counsel, write, teach and coach. My deepest learning about the nature of reality and humanity has been acquired at the feet of some of the greatest world teachers, unrecognized by the Academy. It has also been my privilege to learn about courage, resilience and empowerment from several marginalized communities around the world. However, these are my official credentials.

2016 – 2017

Citizens Counselling VictoriaTraining in Therapeutic Counselling

2010 – 2016

University of Victoria, CanadaPhD, Art EducationFocus on transformation through creative practices.

Simon Charlie Society, Duncan, CanadaApprenticeship in Indigenous Canadian Art Focus on community healing through creative and spiritual practices.

1995 – 1997

Kootenay School of the Arts, Nelson, Canada Dip. Fine Arts in Painting and Creative Writing

1983

University of KwaZulu NatalHigher Diploma in Education Focus on learning through Drama and English methods.

1980 – 1982

University of KwaZulu NatalB.A. Drama and English Literature

About Me

Counselling, Books, Art, Workshops

I am passionate about the intersection between creativity, psychology and spirituality, and the latest neuroscience that underpins this connection. I maintain my own creative and meditative practices, while counselling, researching, writing and teaching about how they can transform us.